Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

CORALVILLE – Sophia Austen has played a lot of matches during her impressive West High volleyball career.

125 matches to be exact.

Austen has never been better than she was Monday on the state’s biggest stage.

Austen had eight of her match-high 28 kills in the fifth set as fifth-ranked West High downed fourth-ranked West Des Moines Dowling 18-25, 25-14, 25-14, 21-25, 15-11 in a Class 5A state quarterfinal at Xtream Arena in Coralville.

“She was so amazing,” West High senior setter Lila Eastvold said of Austen. “She was good the first four sets but set five, when you need her, she shows up and I think we really saw that today.”

Austen had 18 kills in the final two sets on Monday as West High (26-6) secured its first state tournament win since the 2011 state title match.

The 28 kills for Austen are the most for the Iowa State recruit since she had a career-high 32 kills in a win over City High in 2024.

“It just means so much,” Austen said. “I was not wanting that to be my last high school game, my last game with all these girls and my last game with my sister. I was just leaving it all out there.”

West High, which lost its state opener last season, will face top-ranked defending state champion Waukee Northwest (30-2) on Wednesday at 10 a.m. in a 5A semifinal.

Last year we talked that we weren’t satisfied not winning that first-round match,” Austen said. “We aren’t satisfied with just winning one game this year, we are going for a state title.”

West High got off to a slow start on Monday as West Des Moines Dowling (29-6) controlled the opening set on its way to a 25-21 win.

Things changed quickly for the Trojans in the next two sets.

“The big thing we talked about was our defense, we were playing lazy defense,” West High coach Jaedynn Evans said. “Our block wasn’t pressing well, we were opening up defensively, we weren’t giving effort for volleyballs and it really turned around in set two.”

West High controlled each of the next two sets from the outset building a two set to one lead with consecutive 25-14 wins.

West Des Moines Dowling battled back to force a fifth set with a 25-21 win in the fourth.

That’s when Austen took over.

After posting 10 kills in the 25-21 loss in the fourth set Austen was essentially unstoppable in the decisive fifth set.

“I was just pumped up, I was like, ‘give me the ball, I’m going to kill it. If you give me the ball I’m going to bang it to the ground’,” Austen said. “I’m still shaking with adrenaline.”

West High never trailed in the fifth set.

Izzie McDonald gave West High an early lead with an ace serve and Josephine Austen had a kill followed by a Taylor Otte block.

A Caroline Crane kill cut the lead to 3-1 but Austen responded with three consecutive kills.

“She was incredible, especially set five,” Eastvold said. “I knew every ball had to go to Sophia. She just really turned it on. She is an amazing athlete.”

Austen kills accounted for eight of the final West High points as the Trojans snapped a four match state-tournament losing streak.

“Phenomenal,” Evans said of Austen. “I couldn’t ask for a better match from my senior captain.”

Sophomore Cyan Blommer had 22 kills and Josephine Austen added nine kills for West High.

Otte finished with six kills and five blocks while McDonald had a team-high 20 digs and Eastvold finished with 56 assists.

“We knew after that first set that was not a good representation of what we can play like and we completely flipped a switch,” Austen said. “I think in the fourth set they stepped it up too but in the fifth set we were just playing for each other. We weren’t going to let it get away.”

West Des Moines Dowling               25  14  14  25  11

West High                                          18  25  25  21  15

West Des Moines Dowling (Kills-aces-blocks)

Jaya Morrow 0-2-0, Hailey Reinders 2-0-4, Kennedy Klein 13-2-0, Katie Muller 2-0-5, Caroline Crane 9-0-1, Kayla Klein 20-0-2, Gianna Stanfel 4-0-3, Totals 50-4-15.

Assists – Jaya Morrow 21, Kate Clendenin 16, Avery Baker 5, Kennedy Klein 2, Caroline Crane 1, Kayla Klein 1, Gianna Stanfel 1

West High (Kills-aces-blocks)

Cyan Blommer 22-0-3, Izzie McDonald 0-2-0, Lila Eastvold 3-2-1, Olivia Headings 0-0-2, Sophia Austen 28-2-2, Josephine Austen 9-1-2, Taylor Otte 6-2-5, Totals 68-8-15.

Assists – Lila Eastvold 56, Izzie McDonald 3, Cyan Blommer 2, Olivia Headings 1, Sophia Austen 1, Josephine Austen 1, Taylor Otte 1

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